Are you LEGO® Smart™? Are your students? Being LEGO Smart is more than building with LEGO® bricks. It’s having the ability to work in teams, solve problems, and create solutions. It means understanding key science, technology, engineering, and math concepts – not just on paper, but through demonstration. LEGO Smart students don’t just know it, they DO it. The sets, software, and curriculum designed by LEGO Education harness the power of the LEGO brick and combine to create learning opportunities for students that will help develop the skills needed for a lifetime of creating, solving, and contributing to a global society. Be LEGO Smart – be the future.
LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry By Nicole Dougal, Riversprings Charter School
The activity is to build a catapult and then experiment sending different LEGO bricks soaring. Start by explaining what a lever is and how it works, including what a fulcrum is. The detail can be age specific and can go into details such as force and F=MA or it can be very basic. LEGO bricks can also be combined to drop from various heights to send other LEGO bricks into the air.
An example catapult has a base with the fulcrum and a lever arm. For the base you will need two 2x6 LEGO bricks, one 2x8 LEGO brick, one 4x4 flat LEGO brick, one 1x6 LEGO brick, and one angled 2x4 LEGO brick. Start with the 2x8 brick and place one 2x6 or either side so that there are three even flat sides and the 2x8 is sticking out of the bottom. Then the 4x4 flat brick attaches to the tops of these three pieces being centered on the sides and flush with the top of the base. Next the 1x6 brick attaches to the far right side, on the 2x6 brick. Last the angled piece attaches to the top of the 4x4 flat brick even with the top left corner. There should be a space between the angled piece and the left hand 2x6 brick.
For the lever arm you will need the rest of the flat bricks (there should be four) and the 1x4 LEGO brick. The attachments are unconventional for some LEGO users. Start with the 2x6 flat brick and the 2x3 flat brick. Place the 2x6 brick down and insert the 2x3 brick at a 90 degree angle lengthwise in-between the last two sets of knobs so that the pieces are perpendicular to one another. The knobs on the 2x3 flat brick should face away from the center of the 2x6 brick. Now attach the 2x2 and the 2x4 to the 2x3 in a similar manner with the 2x4 on top, in-between the middle and top knobs, with the 2x4's knobs facing downward. The 2x2 brick is attached in-between the middle and bottom knobs, with it's knobs facing up. Last the 1x4 brick is turned upside down and attached to the far end of the 2x4 flat brick. This should cause the lever end to be top heavy and fall back to the side of the 1x4 brick. The 2x4 flat brick and the 1x4 brick form the cup that will hold the other LEGO bricks that will soon be flying and the 2x6 brick is the arm that we will force down. The angled piece is the fulcrum. The lever arm should fit in the base almost as if cradled. It will sit at about a 30 degree angle. Make sure the angled piece is angled inward such that the 2x6 flat brick of the lever arm is against the angled surface and the cup is resting against the 1x6 brick. Now we are ready to go.
Place a LEGO brick in the cup and fire away! The bottom of the 2x8 brick that is sticking out forms a great place to hold or secure the base so that it does not go flying, though the lever arm most likely will fly as well, though not as far as the LEGO brick in the cup. Try different sized LEGO bricks, or combine them. You can also combine the left over pieces and drop them on the lever arm to send the other LEGO bricks flying. Your students will love it. Remember to reinforce what you talked about earlier. Showing them where the lever and fulcrum are on their model and discussing the results of their different experiments (i.e. the different results they get with different amounts of force, heavier LEGO bricks, etc.).
Lesson Learned: Student will learn basic mechanics including levers, fulcrums, distance, force, etc.
LEGO Smart Activity (Does not use LEGO Smart Kit) By Elizabeth Carpenter, Chittenango High School
Prepare: Place about 20 LEGO bricks into a sandwich bag. Avoid using wheels. Do use odd shapes appropriate for age level. Prepare enough bags for one bag for every two to three students.
Activity: Introduce the activity by discussing estimations. Tell the groups they can mass any one LEGO on the digital balance and they must tell you the mass of the entire bag of LEGO bricks. Groups should first decide which LEGO brick might be the "best". Once they have massed the selected brick, they should create a data sheet tabulating all of their LEGO bricks including the masses they estimate for each brick and the total mass of all the LEGO bricks.
Options for activity extension: Have students write a discussion of the technique they used for determining the total mass. Have students calculate percent error. Have students write a discussion of why they were "off" on their measurements. Have students write a discussion of how they could improve the final measurement by massing one more LEGO brick. Have a class contest for the group with the lowest percent error. Build a large LEGO object or use a picture and ask students to write how they could determine the mass of the object from the mass of a smaller object. (Density idea, volume concepts.)
Lesson Learned: Students learn how to problem solve, estimate, tabulate, and communicate as they work in groups to solve an estimation of "mass" problem.
LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry By Becky Beyer, Granby Elementary Gifted Services
Students will work in small groups. The light gray LEGO brick equals 1 unit of volume. Using this brick as "x", students will express all other bricks in relation to x. For instance, the flat black 6x2 brick is expressed as 1/3x. When they are done comparing and expressing volumes, students will make a shape that looks like an alligator. Then, they will decide what the volume of the alligator is, based on the light gray brick as one unit of volume.
Lesson Learned: Students will explore the use of a variable when comparing volume.